Free
by Bm89
Summary: "I feel like I'm going to puke, but other than that…I can't believe I let you talk me into this."


**A/N: Another one of those oneshots that I don't mean to be taken seriously, but hey, if you like it, then that's a win for everybody, right?**

 **Mistakes are mine. They're probably on the OOC side. Be gentle. Enjoy…**

 **##**

"Okay, soon-to-be Birthday Boy…" Olivia started, settling into a stool at the counter while Ed cooked. "What do you want to do?"

"Funny you should ask…" He stepped over to where his coat hung on the rack by the door and pulled a brochure out of the inside pocket. He handed it to her and watched as her eyes scanned the title.

She looked up at him, then back down at the pamphlet in her hand. "Skydiving," she said blankly. "You want me to take you skydiving?"

"No," he shook his head and chuckled as he made his way back to the stove. "I want _us_ to go skydiving."

She stared at him. "You've lost your mind."

"Maybe," he shrugged. "But I think it'll be fun."

"You think jumping out of a perfectly good airplane will be _fun_?"

"Sure." He leaned against the counter, facing her, arms crossed over his chest. "Where's your sense of adventure, Liv?"

She barked out a laugh and mimed searching her pockets. "You know, I think I left that in my work pants," she quipped.

"Fair enough," he chuckled.

"Seriously though," Olivia said, bewildered as she opened the pamphlet and began reading. "What brought this on?"

"Couple of guys from the unit just went. Said it was fun," he shrugged. "They said there's nothing like it."

She rested her chin in her hand and considered him. "You really want to do this?"

"Yeah," he said. "It sounds like a rush." He came around and walked into the gap between her legs, framing her face with his hands. "And I want to experience that with you."

"You know what else sounds like a rush?" She raised her eyebrow. "Getting a tattoo… You can't just get a tattoo?" she whined. The thought of Ed with a tattoo sent a flutter to her lower belly. Odd, since tattoos had never really been a _thing_ for her.

He considered her suggestion. "Maybe my next birthday." He winked at her and she groaned.

Her eyes darted between his. Her shoulders sagged as she looked at him. "Fuck."

He laughed. "So, that's a yes?"

She rolled her eyes, smiling as his lips came down to meet hers. "Fine. Yes."

##

Olivia trembled almost violently as the instructors at the skydiving hangar strapped her into her harness. "Make sure that's on really good," she said nervously.

The guy tugging at the material gave her a reassuring smile. "Will do, ma'am." He heard her take in a shaky breath. "You guys will be just fine."

"Yeah," she said, unconvinced.

She had been near-death more times than she could count. She'd stared down the barrel of a gun. She'd felt them pressed to her temple, one pull from lights out. And while she had absolutely feared for her life in those scenarios, standing in the hangar being strapped into a harness and about to jump out of an airplane sent a different feeling through her veins altogether and she was almost numb, paralyzed with fear as she grappled with what they were about to do.

"Most people want to go right back up the second they land," he told her, and she held back the scoff of disbelief that threatened to escape. "You'll see."

She caught Ed's eye as he was getting strapped in a few feet from her. "You good, Liv?"

"I feel like I'm going to puke," she shared matter-of-factly. "But other than that…I can't believe I let you talk me into this," she said, shaking her head.

Ed chuckled. " _I_ can't believe you let me talk you into this." He saw her skin whitening to the point where she looked sickly and she swayed slightly as the instructor yanked and tugged on her harness. "Liv," he said. When she turned to look at him, he smiled comfortingly. "It's going to be fine."

"You better hope it is," she warned. "Because if I die and you, by some miracle, survive, you better believe I'm going to haunt your ass."

He blanched a little at her warning. "Noted." She turned her attention away. "Hey Liv?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Finally, she turned back to him and smiled; a real smile. "I love you, too."

The instructors stepped away. "Alright, guys… They're getting the plane ready from the last drop. Your tandems will be here in a few and we'll get the show on the road." They grinned at Ed and Olivia. "You ready?"

##

The size of the plane only permitted two divers and their tandems to jump at a time, so it was only Ed and Olivia who boarded the plane, straddling two benches that ran the length of the interior.

Ed looked over and noticed that Olivia still looked a little pale. "You okay, babe?"

She nodded silently, still staring straight ahead. "I'm just, uh… just nervous." She cleared her throat. "I'm not great with heights."

He reached for her hand across the small aisle that separated them. "Truth?" She met his eyes, silently imploring him to continue. "I'm _terrified_ of heights."

She gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand.

"This will be fun," he assured her. "You'll see."

Before she could retort, their tandem divers boarded the plane and introduced themselves as Mac and Karl. Mac hailed from California and was a self-professed adrenaline junkie. He sat behind Ed and started connecting their harnesses together. Karl was a Russian transplant who had been in the states for over 20 years. He smiled at Olivia before taking his spot behind her.

"You good, love?" She took in shaky breath as she felt him tug her harness here and there as he attached it to his.

"As good as can be expected…" She responded.

"You'll be just fine; I've got you," he assured her. "We'll free-fall for about a minute before I pull the chute, and if it makes you feel better, you can rest your feet on the top of mine while we float."

She nodded. "I might just do that. Thanks."

The plane's engine roared to life, and feeling the vibration of the twin engines on the bench beneath her thighs, Olivia felt a new wave of nerves overcome her, so intense she could feel her pulse thumping like a bass drum in her fingertips.

As the plane took off and gained elevation Mac took the liberty of going through some last minute instructions for the dive.

"Alright guys, when we get the OK from the pilot to jump, we're going to go over to the door. You guys are going to sit on the edge of the plane and hold onto that bar," he pointed to a metal bar situated above the door. "When we say GO, you let go, and you let your arms and legs fall into the position you saw in the video before you got strapped in. Remember, legs bent at the knee, feet up; arms bent at the elbow, out." He looked pointedly for acknowledgement from both Ed and Olivia, and they nodded.

Mac and Karl adjusted the straps on the clear goggles on Ed and Olivia's heads to make sure no air would leak through the seams during the free-fall, and when the pilot threw up a fist, Olivia heard Karl's voice in her ear. "Okay, dearie, we're up first."

She took a deep breath and shimmied down the length of the bench she was straddling, unaccustomed to have to move while literally attached to another person. The plane was impossibly loud with the hatch open, and she was visibly shaking as she approached the opening. She took steadying breaths to try to calm her nerves and ease the overwhelming urge she had to throw up.

It wasn't until she got to the edge that she realized that while she was attached to Karl, she would not be the one sitting on the edge, as Mac had explained. Rather, it was Karl who would be sitting, and she would be dangling outside of the plane, 14,000 feet in the air. Confronted with this, she gripped the metal bar above her like her life depended on it, hardly paying attention as Ed shimmied his way down his bench to join her.

He gripped the metal bar securely and looked over at her with a small smile.

"Any last words, guys?" Mac joked.

If her heart could've dropped further than where it currently sat in her toes, it likely would have at that statement.

Ed looked at her and said, "Kiss me," as he leaned in. She latched onto his lips with abandon, kissing him deeply as if it would be the last time, paying no mind to the two men who sat literally inches from them with a front row seat to their affections.

The rational part of her mind knew that this would not be the last time she kissed Ed Tucker, but the part of her that was dizzy with fear was overpowering any capability she had for rational thought, and she kissed him until she felt confident that she'd committed his taste to her memory. When they parted, breathless, he looked at her adoringly. "You ready?"

"Let's get this over with."

"Okay," Karl shouted. "Let go!"

Ed let go immediately, but Olivia's hands needed a little convincing, and Karl removed them from the bar for her. Then, all of a sudden, she was flying, vast expanses of earth below her, and nothing but blue sky in her peripheral vision.

She tried to scream, but it was like she was in a vacuum and she couldn't get air in her lungs to project her voice. She was cold, and she could hear her Karl screaming with joy as they dropped.

They caught up to Ed and Mac, and Karl told her to reach out for Ed's hand, so she did, and there they were, flying through the sky together hand-in-hand.

She looked at Ed's face and registered the pure, unadulterated joy that permeated his features. He was having the time of his life, and that knowledge immediately made this adventure worth the terror and nerves that she'd been plagued with.

He mouthed _I love you_ to her, unable to get the sounds to come out of his mouth, and though it was difficult with the force of the wind whipping her face, she managed a smile at him in return, squeezing his hand.

They had to let go and separate for Mac and Karl to pull the cords for the parachutes, and when the chute came out, she felt like she was being pulled up from her bellybutton. Just like that, the whirring noise of the free-fall was over and she was … floating, in silence, essentially.

She gasped for breath, ears ringing, winded from the sudden pull of the chute and trying to recover from the intensity of the free-fall. But as her breathing returned to something resembling normal, she was able to focus on her surroundings, and her breath caught in her throat as she absorbed the view.

 _It was gorgeous_.

Two miles above the ground, seeing the shoreline on either side of her, with fields and houses in between… It was serene. Nothing like she'd ever seen before. It gave her perspective, not unlike how one feels small standing on the edge of an ocean – being but a speck in the sky, invisible to those with their feet on the ground, it made you appreciate your place in the world.

She had lost sight of Ed, and the height was still daunting, thousands of feet separating the soles of her shoes from the ground, but she put her feet on top of Karl's like he'd suggested, and she actually felt like she was standing on something – in the middle of the clear blue sky.

Karl let her steer the parachute, and she turned it this way and that, and before long, she actually felt herself smiling.

"It's something, eh?" she heard him say.

"It really is," she agreed. "How long have you been doing this?"

He chuckled, "Oh, about 20 years now."

 _Wow._ "I can understand why," she said, thoughtfully.

It felt so bizarre, having a genial conversation with this man as if they were strangers in line at a coffee shop, rather than two people floating beneath a parachute in the sky.

"It's not even the diving itself that's so satisfying after all these years," he said. "It's getting to take out first-timers, like you, and then watching you fall in love with the rush after being terrified in the plane."

She laughed. "Terrified doesn't seem like a strong enough word."

"Maybe not, but look at you now. Laughing."

They neared the ground and she could see the top of another parachute. "Is that them?"

"It is indeed," Karl confirmed. "Remember the video – you want bend your knees and hold your legs out in front of you." She nodded. "It's okay if you have to roll – not everyone lands on their feet."

Karl steered the parachute so they wouldn't be landing in the same space as Ed and get tangled or collide, and Olivia positioned her legs appropriately, taking a deep breath as the ground loomed larger and more expansive in front of them.

When her feet met the solid ground of the field, she felt the jolt all the way up her spine – not painful, necessarily, but uncomfortable. She staggered a bit as Karl found his footing behind her, both of them trying to brake Fred Flintstone-style against the momentum that the parachute had created behind them.

"Way to go, love," Karl complimented her as he worked on disconnecting their harnesses. "Perfect form on that landing."

She blew out a breath, still too overwhelmed for words, and looked at him blankly as she regained the ability to move independently again.

Karl looked at her. "Takes a minute," he smiled knowingly, "to come down to earth, so to speak," he joked, winking at her.

She opened her mouth to speak when she heard Ed call her name from a distance as he made his way to her.

"That landing," he marveled, as he got closer. "Incredible."

"What, you didn't stick yours?" she said confidently.

He laughed. "Mine was more of a tuck-and-roll," he admitted. His eyes flicked between hers, alight with amusement and wonder. "We just jumped out of an airplane."

As if she didn't know.

"If people didn't think I was crazy for dating you before," she wistfully, grasping his arms as they stepped into each other, "they sure as hell will now…"

"And you? What do you think?"

She chewed her lower lip, fighting a smile as he anticipated her response. "I think, that I've never felt a rush like that before..."

Ed smiled triumphantly. "Thank you for doing this with me."

Despite her initial reservations and the fear that overwhelmed her in the plane, there was never any doubt in her mind that she would go through with this, for him. "Happy birthday, baby."

Instead of thanking her, he cupped the back of her neck, pulling her toward him and capturing her lips. He pried her mouth open with his tongue as she threw her arms around him, both overcome with the rush of the afternoon, endorphins running at an all-time high.

…

The way Ed's body reacted to the rush of skydiving one would have thought he'd done the impossible: cheated death, tempted fate… And maybe he had.

He felt invincible. Alive and invigorated in a way that only one thing had made him feel before, and she was sitting in the passenger seat beside him.

He was itching to get her home.

Ed reached across the console, letting his hand come to rest on her thigh, and he smiled when he felt her hand cover his.

Confidently, his hand inched higher. In his peripheral vision, he saw her turn to him, eyebrow raised as she increased the pressure of her hand on his, slowing its movement, and he clenched his jaw to stop from grinning as he stared out the windshield.

Her grip on his hand relaxed moments later and he boldly tried again. His second attempt thwarted just as the first had been.

"Ed," she sighed with a stern smile, "surviving a jump from a plane at 14,000 feet only to die in a car accident because you can't keep your hands to yourself is _not_ an irony I am anxious to experience today."

He chuckled, acknowledging her with a gentle squeeze before he glanced in her direction. "Can you blame me?"

"No," she said, softening, letting him see the arousal burning dully in her own eyes. "But keep it in your pants until we get home."

##

They were hardly through the door of the apartment before Ed kicked it shut and had her pressed against it, his thigh sandwiched between her legs and his hands pawing at her shirt, desperate to feel the skin beneath.

She let out a strangled moan when his teeth scraped against the skin between her neck and shoulder, and though her brain was fogged with desire, she felt vaguely grateful for her own thoughtfulness in opting to have Noah stay with Rollins instead of having Lucy stay here with him.

Ed and Olivia were no strangers to adrenaline; it was practically a daily experience in law enforcement. But this was adrenaline taken to a whole new level compared to what they were used to. There was no way she could have predicted what the rush of skydiving was going to feel like; what it was going to do to them in the hours after the fact.

They were primal. Voracious. Plundering And though they'd landed back on the ground some time ago, she knew they both still felt like they were in the thick of the free-fall.

"Baby." She gasped, her body jerking when one of his hands wormed its way beneath her bra to massage her bare breast. "Not here," she whispered in his ear before moving her lips down to his neck, breathing in his scent. "Can't…stand."

"Where?"

"Couch?" She hummed against the hot skin of his neck, tugging at the hem of his shirt before he pulled away from her far enough that she was able to tear it over his head. It landed on a lampshade, and she heard the lamp rock back and forth to find its balance again as she gazed hungrily at the new skin that was exposed to her.

Ed knelt down, gripping the backs of her thighs and she yelped as he lifted her, turning them from the door and hurrying to the couch, where he plopped against the cushions and she adjusted herself so that she was straddling him more comfortably.

Olivia used this opportunity to take back some of the control she'd relinquished to him. Rather than a race to the finish, she kissed him slowly and switched gears into a more methodical, thorough approach– one that was more about savoring the moment than tearing each other's clothes off.

Pulling away from his lips, she rested her forehead against his, brown eyes meeting blue through the haze of arousal.

"We jumped out of a plane today," she murmured, a half-smile curving her lips as she scratched at the coarse hair on the back of his head.

"We did." He brought a hand from her lower back up to push a loose strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her nose.

"Good birthday?"

Ed nodded. "The best." She smiled and reached down, pulling her shirt off and gripping the back of the couch on either side of his head. His hands skimmed her sides and she shivered, leaning down to kiss his neck and upper chest as he popped the clasp of her bra open, guiding the garment down her arms and then across the room with a flick of his wrist. He sighed contentedly, leaning his head back against her ministrations as his hands caressed her breasts. "It will be hard to top."

"Know what the best part is?" Olivia reached between them and undid the button and zipper on his pants, sliding off of his lap and yanking his pants down when he lifted his hips to help her.

"What's that?" he breathed.

His breath caught when she stood and removed her own pants and underwear, standing before him wearing nothing but a sultry smile. She resituated herself on his lap, smirking mischievously as she ground her hips against his. She leaned into his ear, flicking his earlobe with her tongue before whispering lightly, "It's not over yet."

….

"Do you think you could do it again?"

He had collapsed on top of her after their second round, feet dangling over the armrest of the couch as his head fell onto her chest, his body cradled by her warmth.

She felt him shake against her with laughter before he opened his mouth to her skin and nipped her breast playfully. "Maybe, if I had a few minutes to recover…"

Rolling her eyes, she chuckled and swatted his back with one hand while the other palmed the back of his head. "I meant _skydiving_ , you ass."

He lifted his head, resting his chin against her chest so he could meet her eyes. "I don't know," he shrugged, eyes twinkling. "Would you go with me again?" He was challenging her.

She thought back to the anxiety. The fear. The nerves. The way she'd felt her heart pound thunderously within every nerve ending of her body… Then, the rush of the free-fall, the look in Ed's eyes, the way sharing an experience as monumental and exhilarating as this one seemed to deepen their connection even further than she thought possible...

Olivia brought his face closer to hers with a finger beneath his chin, brushing their lips together ever slightly before she murmured against them. "You know… I think I would."

##

 **A/N: Originally intended this to be a chapter 2 for Cupcake because of the birthday theme, but where's the fun in that?**

 **Olivia's skydiving experience (and her near-crippling fear of heights) is somewhat autobiographical. There really is nothing like it, if you've never done it before. Although I think I would've enjoyed my skydiving experience more if there was sexytime to follow… But, c'est la vie, right? #LeSigh**

 **Review?**


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